It was a story on the other side of the ocean last night, and it'll be one this afternoon in North America.

In an interview with a Swedish television station, the Swedish men's hockey coach, Bengt-Åke Gustafsson, said his team was contemplating trying to lose their final round-robin game against Slovakia today (2 p.m. EST). (Swedish-language link)

The reason? To get a better seeding in the medal round quarter-finals, which begin Wednesday.

Prior to today's games, the Swedes sit in 3rd spot in Group B. A win against Slovakia would push Sweden ahead of the Slovaks and into a higher seed. And while under ordinary circumstances that would be considered a good thing, this time around a top two seed in Group B will get you an elimination-game date with either Canada or the Czech Republic.

The only caveat there is that Switzerland will have to defeat the winless Italian team in order to secure 2nd spot in Group A, something that the Swedish coach is obviously assuming will happen. It's also possible the Swiss may not be as motivated as they have been, given they've already secured a medal-round berth (and, besides, Italy has played well enough that they could beat them).

In any event, that's the news. And there's likely to be some discussion about this move not being 'in the spirit' of the Olympics.

I suppose the most surprising thing is that Sweden's coach would even mention this possibility to the media at all. Let's just say we won't be surprised to see their backup netminder tomorrow. (And, given how Sweden fared against another underdog in 2002 — Belarus — one imagines that they'd perhaps be avoiding another such scenario.)

Other musings on the implications of tomorrow's games:

The schedule

Latvia vs. Kazakhstan - 5:30am et

Switzerland vs. Italy - 6:30am et

Finland vs. Germany - 9:30am et

Canada vs. Czech Republic - 10:30am et

Sweden vs. Slovakia - 2pm et

United States vs. Russia - 2:30pm et

Game one only has relegation-level ramifications, so we'll throw that one out. Let's also assume that Switzerland does, in fact, defeat Italy. We'll also put Finland over winless Germany (although it doesn't matter either way as the Finns are guaranteed top spot).

The standings with those games factored in and the four relegated teams removed:

Depending on the result of tomorrow's Canada-Czech game, those clubs will finish in either 3rd or 4th. It's in Group B where things get really 'interesting'.

The Americans can't move anywhere, win or lose, and will face first-place Finland in the quarter-finals. And, with a win by Russia and a loss by Slovakia, there'll be a three-way deadlock at 4-1-0. Russia holds a significant edge in goal differential at the moment, so we'll assume their win keeps them ahead in that scenario.

Well, that was a tad more mind-bending than I'd thought it would be, but you get the idea. Let's just say that if Sweden succeeds in 'tanking' the game, Finland plays the U.S., Switzerland gets Sweden, Canada/Czech plays Russia/Slovakia.

4 Comments:

Is this any different than skiiers screwing around in their qualification runs to try and get a preferable starting slot? It implies a disrespect for certain opponents that isn't a factor in skiing, but other than that I don't see any difference.

Its no different than a Pro sports team that has secured a playoff birth, resting their starters. The media was all-over the Indy Colts for NOT resting their starters, and now they will likely make a big deal about if Sweden does? Proof once again, that the media can spin a story any way they want. Lets face it, Sweden has won the right to do whatever they want. If Canada didn't crap the bed against the Swiss and Finns, we wouldn't be having this discussion.

I'm pretty sure the tiebreaker is head-to-head record, which favours the Swiss.

BTW, if Germany had beaten Italy instead of tying them, the Finns would have had the same dilemma as the Swedes ... could you imagine the outcry if Canada lost to the Czechs, then missed out on a berth in the next round because the Finns tanked their last game against the Germans? Yikes!

Alas, the Italians stepped up and made the whole thing academic. But still ...

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About Me

A sportswriter at The Globe and Mail, James covers the NHL and the game of hockey. He is a member of the Professional Hockey Writers' Association, a radio and TV analyst with TSN and was the NHL network manager at SB Nation from 2008 to 2010. A graduate of Thompson Rivers and Ryerson universities, James grew up in Kamloops, B.C. — one of Canada's great hockey cities — and was a season ticket holder in the Blazers' glory years.

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